Chapter 19

They say time flies when you’re having fun. Possibly as a consequence of this axiom, time seemed to be actively slowing itself down lately. I’d barely left the apartment in the last three days. While I hadn’t really been planning to do much with how little cash I had available to me, it still wasn’t pleasant. At least I’d managed to get Rockerboy up to 1900/2000XP towards Level 2 with all my unwelcome spare time. But that didn’t change how much I wanted to go out for a run, I hadn’t managed a single Body alert in days.

My current self imposed incarceration was due to one simple fact, the little fucks down on sub 10 were actively looking for me. I really hadn’t considered that reaction, but I suppose when you run a gang and someone kills a bunch of your people, it’s not unreasonable to expect them to try to track said someone down and brutally murder them. It’s not like they can go to a fixer and open a contract when they don’t even have enough creds to buy guns for their gang.

Sara had ultimately been the one who clued me in as to the search ongoing for my handsome self. Apparently one of the kids inside the first door to sub 10 that I’d opened had managed to snap a pic of me, even though I was only there for a few seconds. According to Sara, one of the annoying little shits had walked right up to her down on level 100 and sent her the pic, asking if she’d seen the candyman around. Obviously she’d just punched the little fuck in the face and walked away…but I couldn’t guarantee someone wouldn’t mention me. Having MilSec guarding our level would probably be plenty to keep them away, but why risk it. Better they remain ignorant until they’re all dead.

I was also a bit concerned that them referring to me as ‘the candyman’ might potentially indicate they were aware that the candy was poisoned, since by sheer coincidence I’d used that very name when ChemCo asked for a recommendation for their new poison. I supposed I’d just have to wait and find out. Either they’d start dying in droves, and I’d level up like crazy, or I’d only get a few dozen alerts, and I’d be out 45 grand. I’d just have to be patient and wait to find out.

I idly opened up my pic app and opened the pic Sara had sent me that the little pukes were apparently showing to everyone they knew to try to find me. Whatever kid managed to snap that pic obviously has a future in photography…no, wait…he’s probably been poisoned and is slowly dying. No future for him... Still a good picture though. The door into sub 10 down there had opened up into a T junction of two hallways, and the picture had been taken from a little ways down the hall extending forward from the door I stood in, as such you could see a large number of children both in front of and to the sides of the door, gaping at me in surprise. And there I stood, framed in the doorway, smirk on my face, and both arms crossing my body with my hands at opposite shoulders like some sort of weird pose. Off to both sides, the candy was caught mid spray, making it look distinctly as though I had some kind of bright red demon wings extending from my shoulders. I kinda wanted to get it blown up and framed.

+250 XP

The unexpected alert startled me out of my photography appreciation session. I blinked and felt a smile stretch my cheeks as I realized what that meant. One down, thousands to go. The kid that just died must have gorged himself on multiple candies if he was the first to go after only 3 days. I could only hope the candies got shared out amongst the populace down there. Too many deaths today would actually be a bad thing, as it would indicate something of a waste of perfectly good poison.

I strummed a chord on my guitar and then shifted it into a minor key, giving it a malevolent tone as I grinned in anticipation.

==

Sitting with Lizzy on the levtrain was something of an experience. The sheer quantity of brightly clothed humanity crammed into the metal tube seemed borderline ridiculous, and just getting to the train had been interesting in and of itself. We’d exited the south side of megabuilding B9 down on level 100, and crossed the street to the train station accompanied by the largest crowd of people I’d seen in one place since I entered the city. The train itself was easily two miles long, and was one of many as the various trains moved at ridiculous speed from station to station, quickly disgorging a mass of humanity only to take on more, mostly next to the many megabuildings through the city.

We were heading out east to an area near the docks to meet her friends. There was something of a party going on apparently, and we were invited. When I heard there was free food and drinks, I was all over it, but the opportunity to get out of the damn apartment was a pretty massive bonus all by itself.

Even with regular stops we traveled just over 300 miles in less than two hours. It hadn’t let me take in too much of the city as it flew by in a blur, but that really only accentuated the endlessness of the massive city. Making sure to mind the gap, as an automated voice instructed me, we hopped off the train and ignored megabuilding E3 across the street to simply head east along a sidewalk on a street I didn’t bother to learn the name of, I was just following Lizzy who had the invitation and instructions to reach our goal. I was just her plus one.

A brisk 20 minute walk later, we stood in front of a rather expensive looking building that had a distinctly gothic feel to its architecture. The pure white duracrete of its walls more than anything else gave off a feeling of cleanliness, especially since the building didn’t sport any holograms advertising along its sides. The only sign to be seen was a red neon above the entrance declaring this building to be The Kingpin.

I followed Lizzy through the door into a wide open lobby with sparkling polished marble floors. Lizzy ignored the front desk and led us directly to a bank of elevators, one of which opened at her approach, and we got on. After living in megabuilding B9 for a while, it was refreshing to be back in a normal sized elevator instead of those slow moving cattle car boxes back home. I found we were moving upwards fast enough to pull me down against the floor a bit, and I didn’t even have enough time to examine the polished brass work in the elevator before the door opened to release us at our destination.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

I found myself following Lizzy through a half enclosed half outdoor bar. The view of the city under the light polluted night sky was easily equal to my apartment back home, but there was something about seeing it without glass in between me and it that really brought home how high up I was. Fortunately there wasn’t too much wind, but I was fairly certain it was the first time I’d actually felt a real breeze since I woke up in the car outside the city. Some respectably decent electronic music was playing a little ways off and Lizzy made straight for it.

We exited the covered section of the bar and headed towards a stage occupied by a frenetically gesticulating DJ. I guessed he was using some kind of app to create the music we were hearing, based on the changes in the music corresponding to each flick of his wrists.

Hearing a roaring whoosh coming off to my left, I glanced over to see a levbike hovering down to land next to a long line of other high tech bikes near the crenellated railing. A scantily dressed girl in fashionably torn clothing and the bike’s leather clad driver hopped off and then proceeded to make their way over to the bar as she clung to his arm. Wait…is this a biker bar? Seems pretty ritzy for that kind of clientele…but then those bikes aren’t cheap. And being a badass pays pretty well in Noir City, so maybe it makes sense?

I shook off my musing as I followed Lizzy over to a booth near the corner of the roof, off to the side of the stage that actually appeared to hang out over the drop. The booth was currently occupied by a gaggle of teenage girls about my and Lizzy’s age, the attention of the entire table was at that moment being drawn to a loud argument between two girls, who at second glance appeared to be twins. It took me a moment to make that determination given their distinctly different hairstyles, one with a long, bright orange, ponytail, wearing a black HarleyQuin brand T-shirt and the other sporting short, bright green, pigtails, wearing an artfully torn up T-shirt that was tied off beneath her breasts, exposing her abdomen. HarleyQuin…why does that seem familiar?

Before I could even start to get a handle on what the argument entailed, Lizzy walked right up to the edge of the table, confidently propped her fists on her hips, and loudly declared, “Happy Birthday, bitches!”

The argument stopped midword as both girls turned to Lizzy with wide furious eyes that simultaneously transformed into identical grins as they cried back, “”Lizzy!”” I was brought up short as the girls leaped onto their seats, bolted across the tabletop, spilling drinks on shrieking girls as they went, and then leaping into a flying twin hug centered on Lizzy. “You came!” yelled pigtails. “I told you she would!” ponytail shouted happily. “Just had to mention biz and she came running.”

The girls quickly transitioned to shooing away the rather damp girls that were still sitting in the booth, on the basis that they wanted to catch up with their best friend ever and her new boyfriend.

I found myself sitting in between the twins as Lizzy protested, “He’s not my boyfriend. He’s just a friend, and a business associate.” She paused as she noticed their teasing smiles and realized they were purposefully messing with her. She huffed and then continued. “Malcom, this is Fanti and Minga,” she gestured at pigtails and then ponytail respectively. “They’re better with a sword than anybody else I know.”

“I’m Fanti,” corrected ponytail.

“I’m Minga,” corrected pigtails.

“She’s Fanti,” Lizzy nodded at pigtails, “You’re Minga,” to ponytail.

Minga laughed, “How do you always know, Lizzy?”

“Fanti’s prettier,” replied Lizzy dryly as she picked up an unattended glass off the table and toasted them while they giggled. “Can’t believe you guys traded haircuts again, you did the same thing three years ago.”

“It worked then, and it worked today. You’re the only one who figured it out,” pouted Minga.

We proceeded to chat as we were brought more drinks by a waiter wearing a neat tux. We also took the opportunity to order some food while we were at it. Apparently the twins’ dad was covering the bill for their birthday as he was a high level ChemCo corpo who had used to live over in B9. I picked up that that’s how the girls knew each other, as they’d actually been neighbors back in the day. Turned out I was actually living in their old apartment.

In short order we found ourselves pleasantly buzzed on expensive glowing drinks whose names I promptly forgot every time they were consumed. We snacked on a large assortment of sliders the twins had sneakily replaced our food orders with as they knew about Lizzy’s weakness for burgers, and we just generally enjoyed ourselves as we wined and dined the night away.

The conversation about the sub 10 basement gig had probably been just about the shortest discussion we’d had that night, as I’d just straightforwardly asked if they were interested in joining us for a 20 grand cut. They’d simply responded yes and moved right along to talking about their favorite types of levbikes.

My biggest discovery of the night was conversely rather small. Though it was likely to cost me big creds in the long run, it was remarkably pleasant on a night when I was getting drunk. I found cigarettes. It seemed that one of the girls that had been chased off when we’d arrived had left a nearly full pack of AeroTech BluBerry cigarettes on the table when she’d vacated, and I’d just gone ahead and helped myself. I had smoked in my last life and hadn’t even realized I missed them until I saw that pack. Popping one into my mouth as I looked for a lighter, the damn thing lit itself as I inadvertently drew a little air through it. Self lighting cigarettes? Noir City for the win! They tasted better than any cigarette I’d ever had before, and I absolutely loved the light blue tinged smoke they produced.

We spent a good few hours drinking happily with the twins before Lizzy decided we were going to head out. She claimed she’d told Abby she wouldn’t be gone all night. And so, to groans from the twins, we bid our farewells and made our way to the elevator. I was definitely pretty drunk, and Lizzy was pretty damn hammered as she needed to lean on me to make the long walk back to the levtrain. She completely passed out on the ride back, and I had to wake her up and half carry her back into B9 and to the elevator. After managing to convince her to open her apartment door, I deposited her on her couch under Abby’s disapproving glare and quickly escaped back to my own apartment.

I found that at some point Sara had apparently restocked the beer in the fridge and helped myself to one as I settled in to watch a bit of drunken TV before bed. Three beers in, and that much drunker, I cheered aloud when Ray happened to come on. I used an empty beer can as an ashtray, and I smoked and drank while I watched Ray absolutely tear into some random corpo shill that was ostensibly on the program to hock some new product or other. I never even figured out what they were trying to sell as Ray practically reduced the woman to tears, and she was never able to get a word in edgewise.

Finishing my cigarette and my beer, I set the empty cans on the coffee table and leaned back with a smile when Ray finally dismissed the woman, who all but ran off stage. Ray proceeded to bring on some band or other who he was incredibly cordial with. I leaned my head back against the couch and closed my eyes as I laughed at the odd dichotomy and found myself asleep even before my IA could even bring up the sleep timer.